This past Monday, August 17, 15 Sojourners gathered at 6:30p.m. at the 930 to kick off Mercy on Mondays.  We split up into three groups.  One group celebrated with a member up the street, one group went grocery shopping for another neighbor, and one group prayer-walked down Mary St. and St. Catherine.  It was beautiful to see the body of Christ coming together to serve and pray for the people of Germantown.  As we went our separate ways to serve, I was reminded of the words of the Prophet Isaiah:

“if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will become like the noonday.” (Isaiah 58:10)

I also recalled Paul’s words to Timothy:

“As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

Many of us at Sojourn are materially blessed.  God has provided for us and has cared for us, and we who are materially blessed have a biblical responsibility to care for those who are not so materially blessed.  It is very easy to look at material blessing and see ourselves as superior to those whom we “spend ourselves” on.  But all who have been redeemed by the blood of Christ should recognize and understand poverty better than the secular world.  We need look only to Christ who “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9).  To become rich we had to be poor first.  Poor materially?  No.  Poor spiritually.  And we had the worst kind of poverty–the kind that leads to death and hell.  But God in his grace spoke into our lives and helped us to see our poverty so that we might look to Christ and become rich.

We will be meeting again this coming Monday, August 24, at 6:30 p.m. in the lobby of the 930.  The call is clear.  We who are the body of Christ should act as Christ acted.  He humbled himself, cared for the poor and the marginalized, and was a servant in all that he did.  We will be making three visits this week:

• Pamela lives in Puritan apartments and loves to interact with the Body on Sundays, but she often cannot make it to services because of hip and leg pains.  We will celebrate with her by taking a meal to cook at her apartment.
• Mary used to live across the street from Sojourn until her house was overtaken by drug dealers and squatters.  We have helped her move several times and will be visiting her to encourage and re-connect with her.
• Freida is an older, independent spirit who has been to Sojourn several times and is hungry for relationship.  We will be visiting her with some homemade brownies.

Want to be more involved in service?  Have you been waiting for an opportunity to plug into the SEED ministry but aren’t sure how to start?  Do you just want to see what service in Germantown might look like?  Mondays are for you.  Come and join us!

Jesse Moss is a Seed Leader and member of Sojourn.  You can contact him at jesse.moss@gmail.com.